Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Day 3 1/2

I found that I got so engrossed in looking at all of the websites that until the very last minute I didn't create a delicious account. That is my problem. There is so much out there, screening and deciding what you want to save can become an issue for me. I'll need to figure out how to narrow my search when I go online and not attempt to cross topics. I was very excited by the literature on adolescent literacy. Hope to also be able to find some good links for math. That will be my next topic...followed by middle level learning, smaller teams, student engagement, relevance.......and oh so much more.

I still need time to play around, practice adding links, and figure out how to read those crazy codes they give you at the bottom of the screen. (Cristen and I tried four time before I got the access code right for delicious.) It all looks foreign to me!

I was a little confused at the beginning of class today, but after plowing through it I think I might be hooked on delicious. I think I will try to export the bookmarks I have on my home computer. That should be interesting!

The good news about the Delicious passwords being so difficult is now the ones on blogger seem really easy!

All of this will be great for snow days, when I can sit around and play with it all day with no guilt. Right now I am trying to not get sucked in and enjoy what we have left of the summer. It is difficult though.

How do we get ourselves more time for doing the poking around that you talk about, Kathy? Could we possibly use team time to do it in those groups? Or even some staff meeting times? Right now we are becoming a more skilled group by learning the ins and outs of these applications, but the time to fully use them is still needed. I hope we can incorporate some of that this year.

Just wait until you get to Google Docs, Kathy! (We missed you today, but perhaps you already have used these and will be less overloaded than I was today!) The potential for this tool is exciting, but figuring out how to use it and then apply it in the classroom will definitely take time, collaboration, etc. I appreciate you knowing that we need this time and that you are trying to figure out how the staff gets that time to truly share and teach each other!